{"id":31939,"date":"2025-07-29T13:52:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T13:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/31939\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T13:52:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T13:52:11","slug":"walkouts-refunds-furore-is-elvis-evolution-proof-weve-reached-peak-immersive-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/31939\/","title":{"rendered":"Walkouts, refunds, furore: Is Elvis Evolution proof we\u2019ve reached peak immersive experience?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Elvis<\/a> has left the building\u2026 and set up shop in east London. Rock\u2019n\u2019roll\u2019s gold-lam\u00e9 King may have died, tragically, in 1977, but this week his hip-swivelling, leg-shaking likeness returned to the spotlight at Elvis Evolution, a newly opened \u201cimmersive experience\u201d. The show would see Elvis Presley<\/a> reincarnated in millions of pixels, restoring the Memphis musician to his former glory. At the cost of between \u00a375 and \u00a3300, people would, organisers promised, \u201cexperience Elvis like never before\u201d.<\/p>\n

Things haven\u2019t quite panned out like that. Elvis Evolution opened last week after an eight-month delay, and the reception has been radioactive<\/a>. Reports of walkouts, heckling and \u201cnoticeable booing\u201d have surfaced, with demands for refunds and cancellations flooding in. Memes are circulating online mocking the production \u2013 the bellwether of any public fiasco \u2013 calling to mind Glasgow\u2019s infamous \u201cWilly Wonka Experience\u201d, the shoddy, unlicensed chocolatier catastrophe that mortified families last February. Elvis Evolution has been branded a \u201cshambles\u201d, an \u201cutter scam\u201d, \u201cabsolutely disgusting\u201d and \u201ca s*** sandwich\u201d. One attendee said they left in tears. <\/p>\n

At the performance I attended, people weren\u2019t as furious as the internet might suggest, but there was definite upset and discontent in the crowd. There wasn\u2019t heckling per se, but audible groans and grumblings throughout. At one point, the screens displayed a message reading: \u201cEvery member of the Elvis Evolution team puts their heart and soul into entertaining you. Any form of abuse toward them will not be tolerated.\u201d That such a warning is even needed speaks volumes.<\/p>\n

The first act takes you on a journey through Presley\u2019s childhood in Tupelo, Mississippi. Audience members sit on rickety train benches (it\u2019s a journey, get it?), guided by an actor playing his childhood pal, Sam Bell. After intermission at a Blue Hawaii-themed bar comes what is supposed to be the grand finale: a reconstruction of the King\u2019s legendary 1968 TV comeback special. There\u2019s a three-person live band \u2013 exemplary musicians doing their very best to revive a dying crowd \u2013 but no live actor playing Presley himself, and the focus is just \u201cenhanced\u201d footage from that famous televised gig. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou think finally, alright, now I\u2019m going to see this hologram<\/a> of Elvis, but no \u2013 it\u2019s three fellas playing instruments on a stage in front of a big cinema screen,\u201d says Liz Moore, who travelled from Romford to attend a showing last week. \u201cThere\u2019s no sign of Elvis at all. Not even someone playing Elvis. I can\u2019t tell you how long that goes on for\u2026 it felt like an eternity.\u201d At my showing, too, the crowd\u2019s palpable disappointment grew as it became painfully clear that the only Presley we were getting was the one on the big screen. This is, to all intents and purposes, Elvis exactly as you have seen him before. <\/p>\n

The most damning criticisms have fixated on the inexplicable lack of Presley in this production about Presley. \u201cI\u2019ve learnt more about Sam f***ing Bell than Elvis Presley,\u201d I heard one attendee complain. Another bemoaned the fact that she had skipped out on Oasis tickets for this. <\/p>\n

Much of the frustration revolves around the early promise to feature a life-size hologram of the singer \u2013 an idea that never manifested. Layered Reality, the company behind the show, did not respond to The Independent\u2019s request for comment, but a spokesperson told the BBC: \u201cA small number of people have pointed out that they were expecting a hologram concert, due to the initial announcement made in January 2024. As with many complex productions that are two years in the making, the concept developed from those early stages, and this was made clear when tickets went on sale in October 2024.\u201d <\/p>\n

For her part, Moore maintains that it was not made clear to her that the hologram had been called off. The creative decision was taken, organisers said, to avoid mimicking Elvis\u2019s performances because they are simply \u201ctoo iconic and irreplaceable. Instead, we use AI to upscale archive footage and in moments we know happened but where no footage existed, offering a new lens into his world\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

The musicians did their best, but attempts to rev up the crowd fell on deaf ears (Layered Reality)<\/p>\n

As Layered Reality admits, \u201cholographic projections\u201d were promised when the show was announced back in January last year \u2013 and in at least one interview, founder Andrew McGuinness cited Abba Voyage<\/a> as a reference point. \u201cIt\u2019s a fusion of theatre, cinema and something like Abba Voyage,\u201d he said at the time. Launched in 2022, Abba Voyage is the blueprint for this sort of musical experience, a dazzling 90-minute concert performed by holographic \u201cAbbatars\u201d of the Swedish pop band. <\/p>\n

Alice Morgan, who attended the concert for her 30th birthday when it first opened in 2022, spent most of the evening completely taken aback by what she was seeing. \u201cI honestly couldn\u2019t take my eyes away. It felt like I was in the year 3000, because you do think for a second, are they actually there?\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

Even the language that\u2019s still used on the Elvis Evolution website (\u201cbrand new, first of its kind experience\u201d; \u201ccutting-edge digital technology\u201d) suggests something more in line with Voyage; with the latter running around \u00a355 a ticket, they\u2019re roughly the same price. \u201cI\u2019ve been on better rides at Disneyland,\u201d says Moore. \u201cIf they think a bit of smoke and a shaking chair is cutting edge\u2026 Well, I don\u2019t know what to say to that.\u201d There is some impressive lighting work, but nothing dramatically new or different \u2013 and let\u2019s face it, without that hologram Elvis, the actors and musicians on stage, trying their best at every turn, never stood a chance. <\/p>\n

Arguably, though, Elvis Evolution was destined to fail even before the hologram promise fell through. Abba Voyage took six years to create, cost approximately \u00a3140m to develop, required a purpose-built arena, and \u2013 crucially \u2013 had the approval and involvement of a willing band at its centre. The Presley estate may have approved Elvis Evolution, but the man himself obviously could not.<\/p>\n

If they think a bit of smoke and a shaking chair is cutting edge\u2026 Well, I don\u2019t know what to say to that<\/p>\n

Perhaps the failing speaks to a deeper problem with \u201cimmersive experience\u201d as the events world\u2019s current money-spinning fad. Even leaving aside the Willy Wonka debacle \u2013 the one that left kids in tears and parents calling the police \u2013 there are countless dubious examples of immersion done wrong. You may or may not recall the Bridgerton ball in Detroit? Guests paid \u00a3130-\u00a3150 for an event at which the Regency era details amounted to one violin player, uncooked catering, dollar-store decorations, and a lone pole dancer for entertainment. (For what it\u2019s worth, Moore says comparisons between Elvis Evolution and Willy Wonka aren\u2019t quite right \u2013 \u201cbut it\u2019s not far off!\u201d)<\/p>\n

Since Covid, immersive experiences have exploded, and the quality has dropped. The term used to mean something: high-value production and a genuinely new experience. Think of Punchdrunk or Les Enfants Terribles, whose productions include Sleep No More (a bold, brilliant interpretation of Macbeth) and Alice\u2019s Adventures Underground (an acrobatic, bizarre retelling of Lewis Carroll\u2019s children\u2019s book). Now, \u201cimmersive\u201d can mean anything with a colourful light and access to a smoke machine. Is London\u2019s Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience truly immersive? Only in the technical sense of the word. <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

open image in gallery<\/p>\n

A recreation of the NBC studio backstage area failed to wow audiences who had come expecting to see a hologram of Elvis (Layered Reality)<\/p>\n

Even Secret Cinema, one of immersive theatre\u2019s first and most popular proponents, has seen a noticeable dip. The early iterations, bringing to life the expansive sets of films like Moulin Rouge and Casino Royale, were nothing short of stunning. The attention to detail was gobsmacking. This year\u2019s edition is an outdoor recreation of Grease, a decision made, I suspect, so that they could repurpose many of the props used in their decidedly underwhelming Dirty Dancing event. Before Elvis Evolution, Layered Reality had a successful track record of immersive shows, wowing audiences with their 2019 reinvention of Jeff Wayne\u2019s The War of the Worlds, so successful that it\u2019s still running six years later. <\/p>\n

There are still spectacular examples \u2013 You Me Bum Bum Train remains a theatrical tour de force and Punchdrunk is hopefully dreaming up something great \u2013 but more and more, the events themselves feel beside the point. What matters is the build-up, the getting bums on seats with the trailer, the teaser, the countdown clock. Attention is secured at the front end, and what\u2019s delivered after is purely incidental: better to overpromise and underdeliver. <\/p>\n

Immersive experiences used to mean something unexpected \u2013 the translation of fantasy to real, waking life. Increasingly, the art form is looking more like a nightmare. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341],"class_list":["post-31939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}